Caregiving Overwhelm Unexpected by Family Caregivers

Lakewood, CO, March 4, 2013 – The Care Navigator offers solutions for family caregivers experiencing overwhelm, frustration and uncertainty resulting from caring for spouses, parents and other family members.

Family caregivers respond to unexpected events such as accidents or hospitalizations by swooping in to arrive at solutions, yet many lack the background and experience to make appropriate long term decisions for loved ones needing care. Few individuals expect to become a caregiver. Most of us never expect to need care as we age.

A short video, Becoming an Unexpected Caregiver and Managing Change, provides background on issues commonly experienced by unexpected caregivers. Discussions about caregiving and care needs with family members are often challenging. Advocacy and care navigation firms support family caregivers in arriving at well considered short and long term solutions for family members.

Many parents assume adult children will provide care. Assumed caregiving by adult children is not always practical for many reasons: employment, the responsibility of raising children, distance and financial strain. Adult children are not always the best caregivers as the task work of caregiving, for which professionals and advocates may be hired, often ruins family relationships.

Pamela Wilson, President of The Care Navigator, relates that “adult children and friends who become unexpected caregivers have no idea of how small tasks quickly turn into twenty or more hours a week of caregiving assistance. Caregivers quickly become exhausted and frustrated and have no idea how to say no when requests from parents and others become daily events.”

The Care Navigator is a caregiving advocacy and support firm that provides assistance in five main areas: unexpected events, ongoing care and household oversight, consultations and assessments, legal planning and advocacy and care transitions.

For more information visit www.thecarenavigator.com a contact page is on our website or you may reach us at 303-205-7877.